Passengers will be able to download discount vouchers, games and video clips while waiting for their bus to arrive from next week.

Passengers will be able to download discount vouchers, games and video clips while waiting for their bus to arrive from next week.

Reading is to be the first town to have all its bus shelters made interactive for smartphone users.

The shelters will become Near Field Communication (NFC) and Quick Response Code (QR), enabled, which means people can download items with a swipe of their mobile phone.

All the poster boards in The Oracle shopping complex will also be activated, creating 325 ‘touchpoints’ in the town in total.

Eye-catching posters asking ‘Are you ready Reading? It’s Coming March 2012’ have been displayed on bus stops around the town promoting the initiative, which is launched on Monday.

David McEvoy, marketing director of bus shelter company JCDecaux, said: “We couldn’t think of a more perfect place to launch this exciting service than in the vibrant town of Reading.

“Our research shows Reading is one of the most tech-savvy towns in the UK with a higher number of mobile phone and smartphone owners than the rest of the country.”

The technology, provided by Zappit, allows owners of smart phones, such as iPhones, HTCs and BlackBerrys, to download special offers, vouchers, games and music.

The NFC system works on the same principle as the Oyster travel card network in London. It is contactless technology which uses radiowaves to connect NFC enabled smartphones to ‘smart posters’.

QR codes, which resemble bar codes, offer the same benefits to people with non-NFC enabled phones once they have downloaded a QR code App to their phone.

A poster may, for examples, offer 10 per cent discount on a drink at a coffee shop and feature a QR code. The user would zap the code with their phone, a 10 per cent voucher would be sent to the mobile which could then be used in the store immediately.

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